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Bob Cordaro always saw himself as a leader - from his days as president of the Dunmore High School class of 1979 to his four years at the top of Lackawanna County government.

If the federal charges lodged against him Tuesday are true, Mr. Cordaro turned from leadership into one of the region's great followers, the latest purveyor of a long and dubious local tradition: public corruption.

Long expected, the 49-year-old Dunmore lawyer's indictment Tuesday induced another tumble in perhaps the greatest downfall of a local politician in county history.

"This is becoming far too common for Lackawanna County, the Wyoming Valley and Pennsylvania for that matter," said Chris Borick, Ph.D., a political science professor at Muhlenberg College in Allentown and a Throop native. "It's a very clear case of people being put in office and making a lot of promises only to end up in the legal system."

Known variously as brash, bold, bullying, arrogant, articulate and ambitious, Mr. Cordaro dreamed large, espoused grandiose ideas, actually carried out some and challenged anything said about him with a burning desire to always have the last word, lest anyone think someone got the best of him.

More than once, the former football linebacker said one thing, did another, then called others liars.

Years later, it never seemed ironic that the picture he used to run for eighth-grade class president was of him dressed as a cowboy with six-shooters. With his booming voice, Mr. Cordaro specialized in shooting from the hip.

Once, in a tense courtroom confrontation over a Dunmore zoning matter with an arch-nemesis, attorney Chris Cullen, Mr. Cordaro asked the presiding judge a startling question about his counterpart.

"What would it cost if I hit him?" Mr. Cordaro asked.

At the University of Rochester, the football team he played on was mostly mediocre. In class, Mr. Cordaro was not, graduating magna cum laude and earning Academic All-America status. A University of Pennsylvania law degree followed in 1986.

He practiced law, but never seemed content. So he hawked his own sports drink and bought local radio stations, once owning five.

In 1988, only 27 years old, he stepped boldly into politics, switching from Republican to Democrat to run against incumbent Republican Rep. Joseph M. McDade, already a local legend.

At first, he said Mr. McDade had done a good job and he only ran to thwart another Democratic candidate who represented the party's fringe.

By Election Day, he had accused Mr. McDade of bringing home far less federal money than he should have, of being out of touch with local residents and living mostly in Washington. He leveled the latter charge in a news conference outside Mr. McDade's Clarks Summit home. Mr. McDade called him "a peeping tom."

"He's lying," Mr. Cordaro said. It would become one of his standard comebacks.

Mr. McDade won, by an almost 3-to-1 margin.

Over the next decade, Mr. Cordaro joined a Wilkes-Barre-based law firm, mostly ran his radio stations and raised a family. In 1998, Mr. Cordaro let it be known that he wanted to be the next running mate of Commissioner Joe Corcoran if Mr. Corcoran's longtime running mate, Ray Alberigi, retired.

Rebuffed, Mr. Cordaro switched back to the Republican Party and convinced another Democrat and Corcoran appointee, Tax Claim Bureau director Thomas Harrison, to join him.

They promised a 25 percent property tax cut if elected and an end to cronyism. Mr. Cordaro said the campaign was not about Mr. Corcoran, but the Republicans' campaign commercials portrayed the commissioner as "King Joe," who dispensed favors and no-bid contracts to cronies.

Mr. Cordaro won the minority seat. For the next four years, he jabbed at Mr. Corcoran and his new majority colleague, Commissioner Randy Castellani, accusing them of cronyism, mismanagement and unwise spending.

He seemed doomed to minority status, but he and his new running mate, A.J. Munchak, caught a break. Months before the 2003 election, The Scranton Times began weeks of reporting accusations of prison officials using inmate labor, beatings of inmates and drug use.

Though he had been on the prison board, Mr. Cordaro said the Democrats had shut him out. The Republicans again promised a 25 percent tax cut and to end cronyism in county government and no-bid contracts.

That November, he and Mr. Munchak shocked most political observers, knocking off Mr. Corcoran to seize majority control. Almost immediately, they announced the county's budget faced a $9.5 million shortfall, and there would be no tax cut. A year later, they raised property taxes 48 percent, lowering taxes slightly each succeeding year.

In four years, they spent the new money on renovating the county courthouse, administration building and county stadium turf, spread county offices through downtown buildings, built a new 911 center, attracted the New York Yankees Triple-A farm team, privatized the Montage Ski Resort and established steady funding for local arts projects.

They also did what they said they wouldn't: they hired their friends and political contributors for various jobs, sometimes without seeking bids. One big contributor, Glen Gress, received the concessionaire contracts at the baseball stadium and ski resort. A Cordaro childhood friend, Charles Costanzo, was appointed to administer the county workers compensation fund.

Dr. Edward Zaloga, a close friend of Mr. Munchak, was hired to provide medical services to county prison inmates; another Munchak friend, Ron Halko, to help run the county nursing home.

The commissioners argued it was not cronyism if their friends were qualified.

In the midst of the campaign, an inmate gave birth to a baby in a county prison cell, raising questions about prison care, and the FBI began an investigation that led to criminal charges against Mr. Costanzo and a conviction for stealing nearly $650,000 from the workers compensation fund. One witness at Mr. Costanzo's trial said Mr. Cordaro took a bribe.

That spawned the investigation that led to the indictments Tuesday.

As he prepared to take over the majority in 2004, Mr. Cordaro made one of the most ironic statements of his career. He vowed to take responsibility for whatever happened in county government from that day forward.

"From now on," he said, "the buck stops here."

Contact the writer: bkrawczeniuk@ timesshamrock.com

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53 posted comments

Stan, why the jeaously? You really do not have one fact straight. But, and eye for an eye? Wait until a man is comdemded before you say such a thing. And, passive aggresive? My head is not in the sand its in our Constitution. Let the trial begin and Stan, you will see what an eye for an eye means.

stan, i dont know why you assume you know anything about this man but you dont. his kids live with him so he obviously didnt leave them. leave his personal life out of it, you dont know what youre talking about.

I'd say a conviction on racketeering and tax evasion. Sixty - seventy months in the slammer, 2.5 million restitution and loss of his law license. Pretty severe. It's sad. He is a smart guy, fun to be around - yes, a little loud and gregarious for my tastes, but overall a guy's guy.

County Man How freakin' passive aggressive can you get. When government is riddled with corruption and you forgive and forget then nothing changes. An eye for an eye good man. If you think that a man who leaves his wife and 5 kids then hires his goomah on the taxpayers nickle is a good man then I can't wait to hear your definition of an evil man. Probable cause is what we are talking about and a grand jury has returned a 40 count indictment. Go stick your head in the sand. What a dope!

Mr tired of paying for their lifestyles,I take great offense to your suggestion that anyone shove anything anywhere because they disagree with you opinions.By the way, your opinions seem to be based on many assumption, "maybe eating steak and wearing designer clothes."What is your problem? Please look at yourself and base something on fact. You will feel better about yourself and you will not have to reduce yourself to such banal comments.

To Tired of paying for their lifestyles,Yes, like I said before, in our beloved country, a country in which I fought for our constitution and proud to say I did, a man is innocent until proven guilty. I am equally proud to say I am a Christian and I believe that we should not judge others.Now, read along with me, if Cordaro did what they said he did, then he owes both you and I a debt, a debt that he should pay back in the manner in which our courts deem it best he do.If the feds can not, or do not prove that Cordaro did anything illegal, then you and all the angry, envious people who are writing these hateful and shameful words would owe him a HUGE appology.Before you impose the Bible on anyone, please make darn sure he is guilty of such a sin. Believing what you read and basing your angry words on it are not at all biblical.And, just for the record, give unto Ceasar that which is Ceasars. God Bless you and everyone else like you. Know that I pray for you.

AS I STATED THIS AM,WHICH THE TIMES DIDNT PRINT..THE MANS A CROOK AND RIPPED OFF MANY PEOPLE..JUST LOOK INTO HIS RECENT LAWSUITS AND SEE THE PEOPLE HE HURT AND SWINDLED..MORE LAWSUITS THAT ARE NOT SETTLED YET..HE IS GETTING HIS DUE..

Oh and by the way, I left out the fact that while his family, his kids and wife, living the upscale life maybe eating steak and wearing designer clothes,new cars and vacations, my family ate meatloaf, wore clearance rack clothing and rode in a used car.You can shove your sermons where the sun don't shine.

Look here County Man and candleinthewind-My property taxes skyrocketed because of Cordaro and his sidekick cronies. Don't you dare use the scriptures to try to defend these crooks. I can only speak for myself here in that Cordaro & CO made my life more difficult because of the tax increase. I struggle and save to pay for Cordaro to go to a Playboy mansion and lord knows what else! You have got to be crazy if you think that I am happy to know that part of my taxes funded his sleazy lifestyle.Your defense of him makes me think that you condone what he did.Try this one on for size:"Thou Shall Not Steal."

Not sure who is dumber Bob Cordaro or the people who elected him.Think about this:I have a law degree from University of Pennsylvania. I then head back to Scranton where amongst other things I am stupid enough to ask a judge in open court, "How much will it cost me if I hit him?" Such a looser.

Kudos to the F.B.I. I'd like to think the buzz I have been putting into more than one agents ears over the years at my kids sports games paid is now producing fruit: "If your co-workers in the Scranton office of the F.B.I. are not finding corruption in the local governments of the Scranton & Wilkes Barre area they are not looking." Enjoy your cell right next to the judges from Luzerne County.

OH B.T.W. The Judge's answer should have been, "That question just cost you $1000, if you actually hit anybody,in addition to the criminal charges, I will recommend that you be removed from the Barr!" Just goes to show you he never moved beyond the jock mentality instilled in him in high school, sad.

Thank God. Someone who has a Christian thought. Each of us must look at ourselves and admit that we are not perfect and not judge others. I agree that if Mr. Cordaro did what he is accused of doing, he should be sentenced to a long prison term. But until that happens, no one should be casting the angry stones that they are.